Florence Alabama

Great Sandwiches and Florence History on the Walls

We spent the day touring Florence, we visited an Indian mound museum, the Rosenbaum House designed and built by Frank Lloyd Wright, Pope’s Tavern & Museum, had lunch at Trowbridge’s Ice Cream and Sandwich Shop and did a few shopping errands.

The economic history of Florence is quite interesting. The Wilson Dam build began in 1918 and was completed in 1924, during the same period the federal government built a large munitions factory in the area. It became a boom town in the middle south. Of course the war ended and the Dam was completed and the boom quickly became a bust. Still the Wilson Dam has a lift of 93 feet and at the time it was built it was the tallest dam in the world and is still one of the tallest. When the munitions plant closed Henry Ford wanted to move his manufacturing plant to the existing buildings, however, congress could not agree with Ford on an acquisition price.

Front with cantilevered carport

Dining area from the great room

 The Rosenbaum House is the only Frank Lloyd House in Alabama and is one of the Usonian designs created by Frank. He never visited Alabama during the construction but sent a member of his staff to the build site. The family lived in the house from 1940 until 1998 when the City of Florence negotiated with Mrs. Rosenbaum to take over and preserve the house. In 1939, the estimate to build the house was $6500 after negotiations the agreed upon price was $7500, however, the actual build price was double that. When the City rebuilt the house in 1999-2000 the total rebuild price was $750,000. A wonderful tour, the feel of the house is incredible, the scale fits so well and the colors and ingenuity that went into both the design and construction is incredible.

Back of the house window doors on the Great Room

Side Entrance Landscaping

Garden Area

Pope’s Tavern was a stagecoach stop on the road from Nashville to New Orleans, it was used as a hospital during the Civil War, it houses artifacts and is one of the oldest buildings in Florence.

Grand Harbor to Florence Harbor

  

The owner of Grand Harbor lives here 

Cool morning, north wind, sunny a fine day to travel not much traffic on the river. The Tennessee River at this point has some commercial traffic but mostly recreational boating and we are learning that even though the weather is much warmer than home the summer season ends with Labor Day. I find that a bit unusual since at home the weather gets bad for boating after Labor Day and it seems to be a natural shift. Lots of Islands, inlets and bays to explore if time permits.

Florence is located just below the Wilson Lock and Dam so we are still on the Pickwick Pool and we noticed as we approached the dam the current increased again just as it did before the Pickwick Dam. Today the current was about 2 mph against us for the last 4 or so miles it had increased from almost no current earlier in the day.

I especially like the elevator down to the river

Nice houses and I can imagine this is a great place to live overlooking the river. 

I made some changes to the 12 volt electrical system on the boat separating the house batteries from the starting batteries as they should be and making sure each set of batteries was being charged in an appropriate manner. So far it looks good, I will continue to monitor for the next several days. This separation is important when we anchor out, so the starting batteries are not affected when we use 12 volt electricity for lighting, TV, music, charging computers and cell phones or instruments. Without the separation we could drain all the batteries and be unable to start the engine. So currently we have bank #1 our starting batteries, bank #2 our house batteries, and a third separate system for starting the generator. It will be necessary to anchor out several nights once we continue down the Tombigbee and Tenn-Tom Waterway.

Patio above that shades the boat in storage, Nice!

This tow appeared to be changing staff

Grand Harbor Marina, MS

Early Morning Fog

We are at the corner of Mississippi, Alabama and Tennessee – If you go for a drive you can go from state to state in a matter of minutes.  On the water at the marina, we are in Mississippi, but the shore across the way is Alabama, and up the hill its Tennessee.  Despite the possibility for geographic complication we decided to go sight-seeing today.  It has cooled off considerably and early in the morning there was a fog rising from the water.

We drove through Pickwick Landing State Park and found some one-lane gravel roads through the beautiful forest.  We thought it looked like Wisconsin, the people with us thought it looked like Pennsylvania.  We stopped to explore a very old cemetery, and then went on to Savannah, where there was a nice little museum.  The museum people were letting everyone in for free to make up for the fact that the Shiloh Battlefield was closed.  The museum actually had a lot of stories about the civil war battle and we learned a lot about what we didn’t get to see.

All National Parks are Closed

Just down the road was the Hickory Pit BBQ place and it was packed with locals.  Of course they ran out of everything we hoped to order, but we had a good lunch anyway.  Then we drove near the Shiloh Battlefield, and saw what we could see within 100 yds of the road.  Quite a few other tourists were there, and one gentleman was giving an informal Civil War History lesson.   Did you know that all confederate armies were named after states – such as the Army of Northern Virginia, or the Army of North Carolina – and Union Armies were named after rivers; the Army of the Potomac and the Army of the Ohio.  Over the three-day battle at Shiloh over 23,000 soldiers died.  20 or 30 years later, veterans from both sides met for reunions and helped re-enact and define the battle lines before the land was purchased from private owners and made into a park.  Every state that had soldiers fighting at Shiloh has erected a monument in the area where their men were fighting.

 

A marina day; Grand Harbor Marina

  

Dennis worked on some boat projects – he is refurbishing the wooden railing around the deck and making it look wonderful.  The bad weather that was forecast is passing us by and for today at least it was sunny and hot. 

The Gold Burgee signifies completion of the Loop

Two couples have “crossed their wake” here at Grand Harbor.  That means they have officially completed the loop as this was their starting point.  One was a sailboat from Alabama, the other a trawler from Navarre, Florida.   When they came in to the dock, other Loopers met them with songs and noisemakers and a big sign to say congratulations.  At the completion of the loop, you are awarded a gold AGLCA burgee, which identifies you as a “Gold Looper”.   Tonite there were many toasts to good times, good friends and all the experiences they have accumulated over the year.  Champagne was once again part of the celebration.

Traveling with a number of other boats has been fun.  The last few days we were in the lead boat (by pure chance) and I looked back to see 7 other boats leave the marina right behind us.  It reminded me of the string of boats that used to travel  down the Fox River, past our house in Eureka, WI.  Those boats would go from Oshkosh or Omro, through the Eureka Lock, to a Saturday night corn roast in Berlin.  Then on Sunday, the same boats would come back by on their way home.  That was in the 1950’s when motor-boating was a new adventure.  Many of those boats had working paddle wheels and made their way in a stately parade up the river.  We would sometimes count 50 or 60 boats headed to Berlin or back.  People in the small towns we visit say they enjoy watching all the boats float by them too.

Reuion in the Marina

Clifton Marina to Grand Harbor Marina

  

Clifton Marina was a bit of a disappointment and the town did not have much to offer. We had planned to stay an extra day in Clifton but two things changed that plan. First, Tropical Storm Karen is headed for the coast somewhere near New Orleans and will curve toward Atlanta. Our Florida advisors suggested that we may need to find a spot to hunker down for three days as the storm passes. We might experience heavy rain and since we are on rivers that drain that rain it would affect our travel. Secondly, the facilities were not as good as we had hoped. So we decided to take another long cruising day and head for Grand Harbor at the junction of the Yellow Creek and the Tennessee River. Yellow Creek connects the Tennessee River with the Tombigbee Waterway. We are at the junction of Tennessee, Alabama, and Mississippi, since we are on the RDB (Right Downward Bank) of Yellow Creek we are in Mississippi. We plan to stay here for three days to ride out any effects from Karen.

Off to an early start

Very pretty cruising day, we departed Clifton at 6:45 planning to go 62 statute miles and the Pickwick Lock (55 ft. lift). We plan about 2 hours for a lock lift and today were very fortunate to arrive at the lock and drive right in for the lift, 5 pleasure craft in our group.

A modern home nestled on the bluff

Homes along the river are beautiful with many designs and interesting locations. Some are high on a bluff overlooking the river, while others are on stilts some two stories high. As we cruised the river, we were called on the radio but could not identify the vessel sending the call. As it turned out, it was a two time Looper Van Carter, we discussed river conditions, lock expectations, and he provided some local knowledge about the rest of our trip. He will attend the Rendezvous later this month at Joe Wheeler State Park in his motorhome.

The current increased as we approached the lock, I was cruising at 2200 RPM that normally would provide 7.3 knots/8.5 mph, our speed dropped to 5.0 mph so we were pushing into a 3.5 mph current. That current speed is very apparent at each buoy, the buoy leans over and there is a significant wake behind the buoy.

Newer homes on stilts

So we are here at Grand Harbor Marina, very nice facility, very friendly staff, happy as clams. More about Grand Harbor and the town of Pickwick over the next couple of days.

Some smaller

Others very large

This one has a tram to the water

Pebble Isle Marina to Clifton Marina

   

We are now cruising in the transitional area between the big recreational lakes created by the damming of the Tennessee River and the canal that was created from the original river.  We spent several days on Lake Barkley and Kentucky Lake and now the water has narrowed.  The scenery is dominated by high limestone cliffs and because of the narrow waterway, the current is moving faster.  Since we are traveling upstream, this has meant going a little slower – but the views are so beautiful we don’t mind.

The Lighthouse is a nice touch

A few areas have been developed with vacation homes overlooking the water.  One even had a lighthouse on the property.  The waterway is vast and welcomes every size vessel from jet-ski’s to bass boats, sailboats and Loopers trawlers.  There were a few barges but not enough to be a concern – and plenty of room for everyone. We know of a few people who started the loop and got this far and just stopped to live here.

There were some beautiful anchorages – Birdsong creek went off the main channel for quite a ways but it looked like a ‘connect the dots’ puzzle to get into.  Double Island had plenty of space and plenty of water so some boats were enjoying that spot.  We came as far as Clifton this evening.  The marina is small, but has 7’ of water and the place is full to the brim. The town of Clifton, advertised as “historic” is not interesting enough to merit the title, except some civil war activity occurred nearby.   

Vacation Homes overlooking the water

The lake narrows to a river

Paris Landing to Pebble Isle Marina

Yesterday we came down a beautiful portion of the Kentucky Lake/Tennessee River.  We brought Kay and Frank from Kenlake, to Paris Landing and then on southward. We landed at Pebble Isle Marina, near Camden Tennessee and joined a full party of Loopers for dinner.  The marina opened their restaurant for us – they are very helpful, very accommodating and very hospitable.  They also have the lowest fuel prices we have seen in a long time:  $3.69 for diesel with the Looper discount. 

Water Level Gauge

We took the marina car to return Kay and Frank to Paris Landing where their car was waiting, and stopped for some errands on the way back. At Paris Landing we noticed the river height gauge, the current water level is about 4 feet below summer pool, winter pool is 5 feet below summer pool. The height marker also shows the overall height of the dam, the maximum water level. WOW!!! 

The Railroad Bridge to Nowhere

Things Change when a Dam is Built

Then spent the rest of the day doing chores and laundry.

Pebble Isle Marina Beautiful Setting

This is a beautiful spot, a little river inlet off Kentucky Lake.  It was a bit tricky and shallow to get in, but worth it.  There are cranes on the inlet – they are beautiful in flight but screech and squawk like dinosaurs (in Kays words – she does a fine imitation).  Also, the water is full of fish.  If we were fishermen, we would have every meal taken care of.